Cowboys' Romo feels like he's improving

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who last weekend turned 32, says he wakes up in the morning thinking about how he can get better at football. Romo, who has two years left on his contract, says he still feels like he’s getting better every year. (AP photo)

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Tony Romo still wakes up thinking about how he can get better at football, not if he is running out of chances with the Dallas Cowboys.

The quarterback and first-time father also gets a smile on his face being around his newborn son each day.

“Yeah, I think it’s definitely a good change and as you continue to grow, you obviously go through the different life changes,” Romo said Tuesday after a workout at Valley Ranch, four days after his 32nd birthday. “We’re lucky enough to have everyone be healthy and through the process and it just makes you smile every morning. It really does.”

While Romo is just getting starting in fatherhood and has been married less than a year, he is heading into his 10th season since joining the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. There are only two years left on his contract, and he’s got only one playoff victory in his six seasons as the starting quarterback.

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Romo threw for 4,184 yards with 31 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season, but the Cowboys were 8-8 and missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.

“It’s frustrating whenever you don’t accomplish your goal each season and obviously that’s to win the Super Bowl,” Romo said. “The thing I can control is how hard I work, how much better I’m getting every single year and am I bringing these guys along to make them as good as they can be. Because that’s part of my job and I think that that’s part of what it takes to win a Super Bowl. And that’s what we’re doing.”

The three-time Pro Bowler said the exciting part personally is that he still thinks he is getting better every year.

When asked how much longer he wants to play, Romo smiled and responded, “15 more years, maybe.” He later said he’d probably stop only when he feels he is regressing, but he doesn’t feel that is close to happening yet.

Still, he has to be taking better care of himself since he’s getting older. Right?

“Nah, that’s probably not accurate yet. I think that I didn’t start playing in the league at 22, 23. A lot of that’s the hits that you take over time,” he said. “So I think I’ll probably have a lot of that stuff later on. That probably starts creeping in about 34, 35. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it until a little later than that before you start feeling that.”

Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman, who won three Super Bowls for the Cowboys in the 1990s, recently made comments about Romo already being a better quarterback than he ever was during his 12 seasons with the Cowboys.

Romo responded that Aikman is “on his own mountain top by himself,” a place where he doesn’t belong.

When Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked about those comments at the NFL meetings last month, Jones said he had three Super Bowl rings because of Aikman.

“We have many things I think that we agree on. His assessment that Romo is a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback is one that we really agree on,” Jones said. “But I have a little hard time making the same comparison he did.”

Jones said such discussions give credence to why he was “as disappointed as I am about last year, and as positive as I am about this year or years to come.”

Romo quickly pointed out that aside from Dan Marino, there will rarely be discussions about greatest quarterbacks who didn’t win a Super Bowl.

“You know that. It’s the same thing as winning majors in golf,” Romo said. “We know what matters as a quarterback. We know what matters. Until you do that stuff, it’s hard to say that.”

Speaking of golf, Romo is bypassing any chance to qualify for this year’s U.S. Open. For now, his focus is on football and fatherhood.